My first BSL exam
When I was working for social services, I used to love reading the British Deaf news magazine. I started having it delivered every month when I was at Doncaster College, and I loved to read about all the news from the deaf community. You could even make pen friends with other deaf people through the magazine. One time I saw an advert from CACDP (the council for the advancement of communication with deaf people, which has now become Signature) advertising their British Sign Language courses.
Moving onto the workplace
I left Doncaster College in June 1986. It was a really emotional time for me, as I had made friends from all over the country. Now we were heading back to our respective homes, and having to say goodbye to each other. It also meant saying goodbye to my first boyfriend.
I left school in July 1983 and enjoyed having a relaxing time at home over the summer. However, I started to get upset again at the thought of going to a new college in September that year.
I’d like to give you a little bit of background about myself. I was born and bred in Burton-upon-Trent, where I still live to this day. My parents were both hearing and I was their only child. They had no reason to expect that I may be deaf. Of course, now we have new born hearing tests so deaf babies are diagnosed straight away, but at that time things were very different, so I was not diagnosed until I was one year old.